Biased - Jennifer L Eberhardt

Why read this book?

Everybody knows of bias (whether that be unconscious or otherwise), stereotypes and outright prejudice - this book uses science and research to tell the story of bias. Where it comes from, how it develops, historical elements and personal anecdotes. It makes you step back and think about how biases are a product of entirely normal brain function as well as societal influences.

Why do ethnic minorities need to ‘whiten’ their CVs to level the recruitment playing field… why do women need to do blind auditions to join an orchestra… why are the general public, criminals and police officers all be treated differently based on race… this book covers it.

The author

Jennifer L Eberhardt is a professor of psychology at Stanford, specialising in the psychological association between race and crime. Although this book does focus heavily on race and crime, it also touches on gender, the workplace, education, black history and uncensored anecdotes of a black person growing up in the USA.

Here’s her intro to the book:

What has this book encouraged me to do differently?

To think. A lot.

Although it is written in a very engaging and personal way, this book is in no way a platform for personal views. It’s a description of how the world currently works backed up by literally millions of pieces of data - from court rulings and arrest statistics, to job applications and umpire decisions in baseball.

I now better understand that white privilege isn’t the presence of something… wealth, health or preferential treatment. It is the absence of experiencing race-related bias.

The world works disproportionately against minorities, and a ‘colour-blind’ approach isn’t going to address that. Treating every disability the same wouldn’t work - blind people and wheelchair users have very different needs and should be treated as such. Due to the weight of human history and fundamental elements of psychology, certain races or backgrounds also face different challenges which need to be recognised before they can be addressed.